LAW-2046 Decision Making and Choice Management
Effective decision making is a key competence of any professional, indeed any human. The quality of lawyers and clients lives depends in large part on the choices they make and cause others to make. This course will review the many aspects of legal work that involve making decisions and influencing the decisions of others, such as client counseling, dispute resolution, adjudication, advocacy, document drafting, and negotiation. Well consider both decisions under uncertainty and choices that require tradeoffs among competing considerations and perspectives. A special focus will be on how modern information technology can help (or hinder) effective decision making, by both individuals and groups. Well explore how the data, knowledge, and processes at play in decisions can and should be formalized. Students will build software applications that assist professionals or laypersons with law-related decisions. No programming experience or other technical background is required. This is a three credit course. In addition to weekly classes, students are expected to spend an average of eight hours a week preparing for discussion and working on projects.